Which carries more weight in the malting process:
1.) Variety and Quality of barley
2.) Malting Process (Water, temperature, etc…)
What is the best water composition and temperature to use for malting?
From my limited reading, Low 60’s high 50’s F for temperature and softer water, but can’t seem to find information on what occurs when using more acidic water vs more alkaline water, soft vs hard, etc… (without buying expensive textbooks…)
I’ve seen that book and may have to glance through it, don’t really know how technical it is.
Wish they’d have a preview of it on Amazon.
It’s pretty technical, sir. Mallett does a great job of getting into the nitty gritty aspects of malting, biology, and varietal selection. If you’re malting your own grain, this book will be well worth your twenty bucks.
Thanks for the reassurance.
I have been malting my own barley, wheat and corn for quite some time and have “developed” my own steeping and kilning schedules for a lager/pale malt with the variety I have access to. It takes quite a bit of time and energy to do this but the end result is something to be proud of. Admittedly my first attempts were not perfect but the resulting beer is drinkable.
As a child (mid 70’s) my grandpa and dad would malt barley in the basement of our farmhouse next to the wood stove. They would use a hand cranked “cracker” and boil the grains in a big pot on grandma’s stove with some hops growing on the barn. They would use about a quarter of a package of solid yeast that grandma had for making bread. IIRC it was yellowish/red packaging. Must’ve been drinkable because they obviously drank it (or they just became accustomed to it.)
